Nutcracko – 975 RP

Silent Night Sona – 520 RP

Snow Bunny Nidalee – 520 RP

Workshop Nunu – 520 RP

Mystery Gifting allows summoners to send their friends a surprise gift. There are two different kinds of Mystery Gifting during Snowdown this year. ForÂ 490 RP, you can send your friend a random Mystery Skin for one of the champions they own,Â ORÂ you can send your friend a random Mystery Champion they donâ€™t own. In either case, the gift will be worth at leastÂ 520 RP.

Which skins can be received from a Mystery Gift?

Any skin for any Champion that your friend owns is eligible as a Mystery Skin, as long as your friend doesnâ€™t already own the skin and itâ€™s currently worthÂ 520 RPÂ or higherÂ and available in the store. This includes Legendary and even Ultimate skins! There are also some Legacy skins not for sale in the store that will be obtainable in the Snowdown Mystery Skin:

And Champions?

All champions that your friend doesnâ€™t own valued at 520 RP or more are eligible.

What are the requirements for sending a gift to a friend?

The player receiving the gift needs to have been on your buddy list for at least two weeks.

If a player uses the /mute or /ignore chat command on someone, they will have to re-add the friend, and wait two weeks until a gift can be sent to that player.

The playerÂ receivingÂ the gift needs to be at least level 10.

The playerÂ receivingÂ the gift cannot be banned or suspended (this includes LeaverBuster, Tribunal, etc).

The playerÂ receivingÂ the gift must have at least 10 unowned skinsÂ ORÂ champions that they are eligible to receive, depending on which gift is being given.

The playerÂ sendingÂ the gift must be at least level 20.

You can only send up to three gifts every 24 hours*.

You can only receive up to three gifts every 24 hours*.

*After you reach your limit, you’re able to purchase a fourth mystery gift 24 hours after your first purchase, a fifth mystery gift 24 hours after your second purchase, and so on. The limit does not reset at midnight.

Can my friends receive a skin for a Champion they don’t own?

Nope, your friend can only receive skins for champions they already own. For example, your friend cannot receive Bad Santa Veigar if they donâ€™t already own Veigar as a champion.

Can they receive a skin they already have?

Your friend can only receive a skin that they donâ€™t already own. No duplicate skins will be added to their account.

Are gifted items refundable?

No, just like regular Gifting, anything received from the Mystery Gifting feature is non-reversible and non-refundable.

How long will Mystery Gifting be available?

Mystery Gifting will be available throughout the duration of the Snowdown event.

Can I give myself a gift?

Nope, Sorry 🙁

Any other gifting options aside from champions/skins?

Yes! Rune pages can now be selected as gifts in addition to skins, champions or Mystery Gifts.

Giftwrapped Poro

To earn the Giftwrapped Poro icon, you must win three matchmade games on Howling Abyss. Meaning, you must enter a queue (NOT a custom game), and win three games. For example, you can enter the Showdown queue or the ARAM queue, but you canâ€™t create your own game on Howling Abyss and have it count towards your three wins.

Santa Gragas Cookie

Youâ€™ll earn this icon by sending any gift during Snowdown using the gifting (including Mystery Gifting) feature in the store.

Bad Gingerbread Veigar

To earn this icon, you must win a matchmade game as a premade team during the Snowdown event. For example, youâ€™ll earn the icon if you and four friends queue up in Ranked 5s to do battle and emerge victorious, or if you queue up with a buddy and claim victory in a normal game. The key here is that the games must be matchmade against other players (so Co-op vs AI does not count).

What is Showdown?

Showdown is aÂ Featured Game ModeÂ where players battle in 1v1 and 2v2 fights on the Howling Abyss.

What are the rules?

Games will be played in theÂ Blind DraftÂ game type. Each team has the opportunity to ban out three champions, after which the game proceeds to aÂ Blind PickÂ phase. After both teams have locked in their picks, there will be an additional period of time in which the enemy picks are revealed to each team â€“ this gives players a chance to adjust runes, masteries and summoner spells accordingly before the match starts.

What are the rules?

Games will be played in theÂ Blind DraftÂ game type. Each team has the opportunity to ban out three champions, after which the game proceeds to aÂ Blind PickÂ phase. After both teams have locked in their picks, there will be an additional period of time in which the enemy picks are revealed to each team â€“ this gives players a chance to adjust runes, masteries and summoner spells accordingly before the match starts.

How do I win a game of Showdown?

First blood (or first 2 kills in a 2v2 game)

Enemy tower destroyed

100 Creep Score achieved (in a 2v2 game the Creep Score of both players is added together)

What are the requirements to play Showdown?

You need to be Summoner level 10 or higher to participate in the Showdown.

Celebrate OGN Champions Winter with permanent summoner icons for teams and organizations, including the World Champion SK Telecom T1. Show your support as the top Korean players charge into the playoffs and stake their claim on the Winter title. When you purchase a team icon, 20% of the price goes directly to that team as a bonus and the other 80% goes to support esports (prizes, salaries, events, streaming).

Each summoner icon runs atÂ 250 RPÂ and is available from now until the end of OGN Champions Winter. Learn more about OGN Champions Winter atÂ http://na.lolesports.com/news.

Â Phreak:Â The interesting thing is, his win rate actually heavily changes based on the skill level of the player. You can check this yourself by clicking the “Bronze” or “Silver” graph, and then clicking the “Diamond” one in ranked solo queue.

The running theory is that his mechanical complexity is actually fairly high. Players have to be able to constantly find and cast on targets with little down time for optimal effectiveness. Tendency to have Smart Cast on is also a big potential reason here.

I think there’s also a big chance that as player skill increases, people tend to build him more optimally. While there are a bunch of good caster items out there, the players that know to go Frozen Heart, not Athene’s, and Tear/RoA, not Deathcap, are getting more mileage out of him.

So for what it’s worth, it seems like he works perfectly fine for players who know how to play him optimally. I think the gap between optimal and sub-optimal play/builds on Ryze is probably higher than most other champions.

Isn’t Ryze easy to play, mechanically?

Â Phreak:Â I was too, except that it’s an easily statistically-backed fact.

I know for all of us playing in diamond or whatever it’s hard to put ourselves back to when we were newer at the game, but it’s just true. I play with my Bronze II friend sometimes, and yeah he just has really awkward item builds. He doesn’t click very quickly. He would suffer on a champion like Ryze, compared to someone like Renekton where it’s okay if you wait an extra second to press R or E. You’re still getting most of the effect out of that ability. This is a significant drawback to Ryze, however.

Even something as simple as smart casting saves a decent chunk of time in the grand scheme of things. Depending on the player, we’re looking at literally 25% damage difference by not putting his abilities back on cooldown as quickly as possible.

So he’s not about mashing buttons?

Â Phreak: Mashing buttons is a significant DPS loss. Weaving Q between each ability and tracking all your cooldowns while also orb-walking to keep up with your target is extremely important.

Heck, even the Riven Champion Spotlight stresses auto-attacking between abilities. I sat next to a guy who would always just QQQ immediately every time. Dude mains Riven. Believe it or not, MOBAs aren’t actually that easy to play. If they were, we’d all be Doublelift.

Heck, you’re in Platinum. Clearly you play a lot. Why aren’t you in the LCS? Seems like you can describe how to play every champion perfectly in two sentences.

What’s your take on Ryze’s balance?

Â ricklessabandon:Â Just some quick thoughts on this:

Ryze is one of the more difficult champions to learn in the gameâ€”his skill ceiling is pretty high compared to his skill floor, and it’s often not obvious what players need to do to get better with him.

Ryze’s strength ‘at his best’ seems to be in an okay spot, but it’s hard to talk much about it since his picks in competitive are infrequent (making the sample size small).

What those points lead me to believe is that Ryze needs changes that better support his different spell rotations, and make it clear when you would want to do things one way or another. To be more plain about it: we’ll probably do Ryze buffs that look like miniature ability reworks instead of just making specific numbers larger/smaller, and those buffs will likely help out novice and intermediate Ryze players more than expert Ryze players.

Where are the changes to Runes announced for Preseason?

Â ricklessabandon: Runes are the pretty much the last major thing to change for the new season, so things have been quiet on that front while we shore up the initial batch of changes already on live. Currently most of my time is dedicated to helping do just that (specifically doing item work right now) so runes haven’t hit PBE yet.

Once we’re ready to put runes out on the PBE, there will be plenty of time to talk. :3

Will these changes weaken existing rune pages or force players to buy new runes?

Â ricklessabandon:Â That isn’t a goal at all (and i’m really sensitive to the that apprehension) but if we do end up doing something like delete/refund mana marks, and those are the only marks you have, then it’s going to ruin your rune pages and force you to either buy new marks or play without any. I’d really like to avoid as much disruption to players as possible though, so hopefully scenarios like that are rare (and made to be as comfortable as possible to transition out of when they do happen).

If you’re worried about a nerf to armor seals forcing you to buy new seals, then i think it’s safe to stay your apprehension. The changes are aimed at making it such that taking something other than armor seals doesn’t completely screw you and your teammates over, not to try to make people stop using armor seals. That said, I think it’s much better to talk about specifics after we’ve posted PBE patch notes.

Frost-chilled days give way to colder nights, but the warmth of Snowdown calls together kindred spirits and foes alike. Snow Day Singed, Snowstorm Sivir and Winter Wonder Lulu have suited up in their Snowdown finest, joining the celebration along with all of the former Snowdown skins returning to cavort in the cold:

Snow Bunny Nidalee

Workshop Nunu

Happy Elf Teemo

Earnest Elf Tristana

Old Saint Zilean

Re-Gifted Amumu

Santa Gragas

Reindeer Kogâ€™Maw

Candy Cane Miss Fortune

Ragdoll Poppy

Nutcracko

Silent Night Sona

Festive Maokai

Bad Santa Veigar

Mistletoe LeBlanc

Snow Day Ziggs

Dark Candy Fiddlesticks

Toy Soldier Gangplank

Snowmerdinger

Slay Belle Katarina

But it wouldnâ€™t be Snowdown without a showdown! This Snowdown, weâ€™re excited to introduce the ShowdownÂ featured game modeÂ on Howling Abyss. Featuring 1v1 and 2v2 battles to test how well you wield your weapons in the winter chill, you can enter Showdown throughout Snowdown this year!

Returning Snowdown ward skins, plus a new addition to the ward skin line up, will light the way to the festivities with some surprises in store for mystery gifting, new skins and new icon rewards to earn. Check back withÂ leagueoflegends.comÂ for more information about the event and weâ€™ll see you on the battlefields!

The spotlights are on, the musicians are at the ready and the Spirit Rush is on. Popstar Ahri announces her presence, shooting a pulsing blue Spirit Orb across the stage. The notes surge from the speakers and seem to take on a life of their own around the pop darling. The crowd rushes the stage and Popstar Ahri charms the crowd with a night of song and dance.

No, not that one. Are games becoming more passive with less opportunities to shut down the opponent?

Where do you want snowballing to be at for it to feel like a fun mechanic?

Zileas: Ideally, we want teams to snowball less… and individuals to snowball as much or more — which is to say, reward individual skill specifically. Individual snowballing is fun, team snowballing is not. If we saw patterns contrary to this, we’d make adjustments.

Are you okay with games lasting 30 to 40 minutes?

Zileas: We like games to be in the 30-40 range. We don’t want them to be longer than before. If they are becoming significantly longer, we’d make an adjustment.

Doesn’t this length mean hypercarries like Nasus or Vayne can never truly be shut down?

Zileas: There’s nothing wrong with late game comps as a strategy that is sometimes played. What we don’t want is for long games to be the standard.

Will Riot focus on rewarding individual skill more?

Zileas: Making the game reward individual skill was actually the point of these changes. When they are finished and balanced I think that will become clear to everyone. Our players are becoming more serious about competition and the game over time, and our intent with the game is to not ‘casualize’ but instead to continue to improve the overall quality of competitive play.

We will from time to time add stuff like ARAM and One for All, but those sorts of experiences can thrive alongside the core game without damaging competitive integrity.

Why do you feel team snowball is less fun than individual such?

Zileas: This is a pretty theoretical game design argument, but bear with me.

The game result of ‘win or lose’ comes from some set of things. They have to add up to a 100% control of the outcome. Lots of things go in — team chemistry, counter-picks at champion select, mastery and rune choices, whether or not a champion is currently strong (or not), individual skill, good calls on team objectives, and so forth.

We believed that in season 3, early game kills snowballed the game but were not really super ‘skillful’ compared to other factors in the game. We also thought that a few good early plays on towers could sometimes secure the game — and a few actions in isolation will be more random than consistent play. So, we decided to reduce the importance of certain early game actions that will tend to snowball teams (Tower kills, dragons, first bloods in the jungle fed to a ‘snowballey’ lane — which is honestly a somewhat random, not as much skill-oriented result). From this, we expect that the importance of everything else to go up… because it has to add up to 100%, and we just subtracted something out.

So, by reducing team snowball early game, you must be increasing the importance of individual skill (along with other stuff).

Additionally, the gold changes we made should make it more possible for a support or jungle player to be the star player of their team.

An analogy I’d make is — would the game have more or less skill if we flipped a coin at the beginning of the game and gave 500 gp to the winning team? Obviously, that would still be ‘balanced’ but would be a less skillful game. By cleaning out stuff that over-rewarded relative to the difficulty of doing it, we improve the relative rewards afforded to the things we all agree are important. Also, by making the game tend to reward consistent actions over a period of time, we will tend to favor the more skillful player.

Wasn’t first blood due to a level 1 invade an example of skillful play?

Zileas: It IS a skillful play. It’s not a coin flip. However, it was over-rewarded relative to other skillful play that occurred in games. It would be sortof like if you made the first shot made in basketball be worth 10 points instead of 2 — still skill-based, but will tend to cause more random outcomes and reward the better team with a win less frequently. This has the same net affect on the frequency with which ‘the best team wins’ as adding a small coin flip test.

Does that make sense? By bringing this back in potency a bit, we preserve the potential for people to utilize the skill that DOES exist there without washing out other skillful actions… Bringing them into balance essentially.

Conclusion: Goals for Preseason

Morello: We only really want anti-XP snowball in the long-term. We’re watching this on the team-snowball level (team snowballing not good, personal is) but you need the ability to get an advantage that closes a game.

Average game time is up a bit – this is something we worry about too. I doubt everything is “right” in the world on this, but we need to dig into specific causes after today’s hotfix.

Single Posts

Morello: So far, we have not seen this be true. Some data we have so far:

* Traditional support characters’ winrate is almost unchanged. (Less than 1% delta up or down)
* Other common duo-laners (Annie, Zyra) are unchanged in winrate. Relatively, their winrate is similar to before…meaning this delta is not changing that equation so far (though some changes may be needed as they might have been in S3).
* The two exceptions are Taric (up ~4%) due to new scaling being really strong on him, and Janna (down ~5%) due to global passive change. We’ll likely buff Janna’s core skills a good amount to compensate (woo!)

This is only a few days of data, but right now, the gold delta has had a low effect on general performance (and in this stuff, deltas matter more than absolutes). We do have some hotfix changes to Brace and Jungle coming in today, but supports and bottom lane are actually looking generally more healthy so far based data points.

Ransom: That’s the beautiful thing about the circumstances Yasuo and Riven find them in. The relationship could go any number of directions. It could be a pure rivalry, or it could be a rivalry that turns into a romance, or it could go somewhere else entirely. But to call it a pure rivalry or a pure romance is missing the point. The point is, the relationship is COMPLICATED and provides plenty of fodder for drama. As a fan of our universe, this ambiguity appeals to me. It’s a grown-up vision of human relationships and not a Disney one.